Investigators still haunted by unsolved Colonial Parkway Murders

Anytime he drives west along Interstate 64 and passes the rest area in New Kent, he finds himself glancing toward the wall of evergreens and aspens lining the highway.

Because he can’t forget that those woods are where the skeletal remains of Daniel Lauer and Annamaria Phelps were found in the fall of 1989. They were the final victims in the string of four unsolved double homicides that came to be known as the Colonial Parkway Murders.

Lyons only came onto the case a few years ago, when he was put in charge of cold cases near the end of his long career with Virginia State Police. He spent perhaps five years delving into the Phelps-Lauer murders, and meeting regularly with their families.

That was enough to leave an impression on him.

“It stays with you,” Lyons said. “It does. And I think it should. It should stay with you.”